--- title: "Bill Gates Backed Startup Is Using CRISPR to Grow Lab Meat" description: "At least two startups are trying to combine lab grown meats and CRISPR to invent the next generation of lab-grown meat, according to Business Insider." date: "2019-03-09" modified: "2019-03-09" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/bill-gates-startup-crispr-lab-meat" categories: - "Health & Medicine" tags: - "Bill Gates" - "lab grown meat" - "Memphis Meats" - "new age meats" --- # Bill Gates Backed Startup Is Using CRISPR to Grow Lab Meat ![At least two startups are trying to combine lab grown meats and CRISPR to invent the next generation of lab-grown meat, according to Business Insider.]() *\Image: Memphis Meats\* ## Lookin CRISP You already knew about lab-grown meats, which are grown from animal cells instead of in a whole animal. And you probably know about CRISPR, the technology that lets scientists edit DNA with relative ease. Now, [*Business Insider* reports](), at least two startups are trying to combine lab grown meats and CRISPR to invent the next generation of lab-grown meat — and it could lead to futuristic new frontiers in sustainable eating. ## Playing Chicken *BI* reporters spotted a pair of patents by Memphis Meats, a lab-grown meat outfit that's gotten backing from tech luminaries including Bill Gates and Richard Branson, that would "create real chicken and beef tissue" using CRISPR, according to the magazine. "One application is to manufacture skeletal muscle for dietary consumption using cells from the poultry species Gallus gallus; another is from the livestock species Bos taurus," reads one [Memphis Meats patent]() dug up by *BI*. A Memphis Meats spokesperson was terse with *BI*, saying little more than that "we are exploring a number of innovative techniques that will allow us to make our products better for the environment and public health, as well as more affordable and scale-able," and declining to comment on whether the company's CRISPR-edited meats could make it to consumers. ## Meat and Greet But the promise of gene-edited lab meat is enormous, according to *BI.* For one thing, it could possibly eliminate the need for "fetal bovine serum," a nutrient-rich mixture made from the blood of slaughtered cows that scientists currently use to nourish lab-grown meats — which would be a big step toward the dinners plates of animal rights advocates. A founder of Memphis Meats rival New Age Meats did go on the record about its work with CRISPR, though, in an interview with the business magazine. "Technologies like \[CRISPR\] allow us to safely increase the quality of our cell growth, which means we will make meat that is tastier, healthier, and more sustainable than slaughtered meat," co-founder and CEO Brian Spears told *Business Insider*. **READ MORE:** [Silicon Valley startups backed by celebrities like Bill Gates are using gene-editing tool Crispr to make meat without farms — and to disrupt a $200 billion industry]() \[*Business Insider*\] **More on lab grown meat:** [*For the First Time, a Startup Grew a Steak in a Lab*]() ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()